Peter J. Mello

VIP

8

Though flowers have never had any special meaning to me, I will forever have a fondness for white tulips after having seen this episode. It may be the kindest of all acts between one human and another: to offer the reassurance that despite all our flaws, we are nevertheless redeemable. If I can perform it just once before I die in a manner even half as profound as Dr. Peck does here, I will consider my life an unqualified success.

Haha, I 'd never noticed until this episode that Sheldon' s insistent proclamation to Penny in The Big Bang Theory that "We keep our keys in a bowl" is a habit he acquired from his parents. When George Sr. leaves to go to the tavern at the end of the episode, we clearly see him retrieve his keys from a bowl in the middle of the kitchen table. This was a better episode than many of the most recent installments, though I can't imagine anyone would continue to classify it as a sitcom; we seem to be sailing in some rather deep family drama waters here.

Oh Sheldon, the fact that you think Tie A Yellow Ribbon by Tony Orlando and Dawn is "rock and roll" is beyond precious. Please, don't ever change.

This episode was definitely a different type of story than I think they've done before, far more reflective and willing to acknowledge the characters' shortcomings. Honestly it's a poor fit for the half-hour format (especially with CBS carving the runtime south of 21 minutes lately), but it was still refreshing to see the cast get to work with actual subtext for a change.

Without question one of the best conclusions ever for a television story arc. When you think about how they wrapped up three seasons worth of loose threads and how improbable it was to foresee any of them, it's truly masterful storytelling combined with incredible performances front to back.

This one and the last one felt very cliché to me, and far beneath the standards of the column. Yes, the story was cute and the male lead was convincing, but her story felt incomplete and the performance subsequently shallow. Almost like the writers thought being an attention whore is a ubiquitous enough trait in women so as not to require explanation. Grrr. Also the throwaway reference to her seeing her father naked in the hospital shortly before his death was bizarre, I expected that to be the tie-in to the story of her attention seeking, but then the denouement has passed and they're in the cab wrapping up the story.

Hair and makeup didn't do her any favors. That hair color didn't work for her at all, and certainly not with those big, dark eyebrows.